Our new fav comedy sketch

Check out this video on YouTube:
This is our new favourite comedy sketch, it's slot like whose line is it anyway but some of the games are different. Richard and in love the interpreted dance game. Next time it's on we are going to mute the sound and see if we can guess the song.

Musicians in the making

My children love to make a noise, Benjamin now pulls himself up next to the piano and starts to play. Obviously nothing sounds like a real tune but it is nice to hear them trying.  This week I brought home a pocket trumpet from school for Evie to try. She can play it better than I can and i've been sitting in on lessons for the last 7 weeks.  She loves trying the guitar and the harp and sings along as she is playing.  I would which instrument she will choose to learn in the future.  As for Benjamin he is going to be a lead singer, give him the microphone and he sings away.

Bribes

I always thought I would never bribe my children to do things or to be quiet by giving them sweets. I am realistic - I know that the sentence ' If you do this .......then you get this.........' works extremely well and is certainly effective on Evie. However, I never wanted  'you get some sweets' to be the end of the sentence.   Gummy Bears are my answer.  This week the Gummy bears have been used as a bribe to encourage Evie to walk further, to sit quietly through church,  to eat more of her dinner.   I don't feel as guilty as the little reward for me is that they are MULTIVITAMIN Gummy Bears.   I feel slight satisfaction that the bribe is something that she needs, children's Vitamins, and she loves them because to her they are just gummy bears, yummy sweets!   Thank you to whoever started to produce these little treats, I'm sure I'm not the only mother who loves them.

Valentines Gifts

Richard and I don't always do gifts for Valentines but this year I had spotted a nice idea that i wanted to try and copy.  Maps in different shapes and sizes are all the thing at the moment you can buy them online at the trendy stores for lots of money, or you can see the idea, buy an atlas, cut it up and hey presto the same finished product for less that half the cost.  I had to limit the hearts to 9 places we had visited together. Fortunately I found a good sized map of Europe that when cut covered all of Germany for our trip last year but also Paris, Prague and Budapest.  I chose Newcastle for the centre heart to show that its home, I'm not sure what to do when we travel to more countries, maybe I'll have to make another frame!

Cake Take Two

Time for the second cake pictures.

Evie helped to make the cake mix and put it all in the oven, she is such a good little helper when it come to making a mess in the kitchen but I know she enjoys herself helping mummy.  She was very proud when I caught her licking the mix out of the bowl. So proud she posed for the photos with very little encouragement.  

 

So here is Benjamin on his birthday enjoying his farm house birthday cake. I was a little worried that the red food colouring might not come out of his clothes of his skin but everything washed away with no problem. The bath water that night was a funny colour!

Its hard to believe that my little boy is one years old already. I just don't know where the time goes. He is a lot of fun to have around the house, he loves coming for cuddles from Mummy and likes to follow me all around the house.  He has started to really take an interest in his toys now as well. Its nice to watch him push cars around and make noises like engines. I wish they would stay this way forever.

Cake Take One

As my parents were going away for the weekend and wouldn't be around on Benjamin's birthday we decided to have two cakes. On the day before his birthday we gave Benjamin a little chocolate cake of his very own to demolish at leisure. At first I think he was a little unsure about what was going on and didn't really know how to go about eating his little cake. Once we cut into it he really got down to business and enjoyed stuffing his face full of chocolate.  A little one year olds dream, unrestricted access to CHOCOLATE!!

Benji's Cake

So I promise there are more pictures to come but just for now here's Benjamins Birthday Cake.  Evie helped me to do the baking and then I did the decorating,  He had the biggest smile when he saw it and we started to sing Happy Birthday. I have to be honest and say that It looked pretty good but the cupcakes weren't the best tasting cakes I have ever made and the frosting wasn't quite right.  Next years challenge is to have the cakes tasting as good as they look!!

Richards Birthday

9th of Febraury marked a milestone for Richards as he reached his 30th Birthday.  I few days before we had gone out to eat with friends and I had arrange for the restuarant to bring out a cake for him after our meal.  He was a little embarrassed when we all started to sing but still joined in with the spirit of turning 30!!

On the morning of Richards birthday I thought I would surprise him with a little treat. Secretly I had booked two days off work with his boss and i'd arrange for us to go and stay in a nice hotel for the night. Seaham Hall has a spa and guests are able to make use of the facilities for the day of their stay and the following day as well.  So we had two very relaxing days sitting by the pool and dipping in and out of the many hot tubs, steam rooms, massage stations and saunas.  I was a lovely relaxing atmosphere. The two hot tubs that were outside didn't get used too much. As you can imagine in February the air wasn't that warm.

Our 5 star Hotel,  beats the Travelodge any day!



Richard reading his complimentary morning newspaper



This was our Hotel - Seaham Hall.



Me looking refreshed after a day sat in the spa.  The Spa is the building in the background.

I had also booked for us to eat in the Hotels restaurant for our evening meal that night. The restuarant was extremely fancy!! It has previously been a holder of the Michelin Star Award and you can certain tell by the menu.  We were given entrees then pre starters beofre our starter ordered from the menu. Then the main and a desert.  Richard's  Main was pan fried haddock with purple potatoes, I had truffle gnocchi with Quails eggs and Butternut Squash.  It was all very tasty, well everything apart from the tomato juice and parmasan foam that we had as one of the entrees.  It was a shame that you weren't allowed to take cameras into the restaurant, I could have had some beautiful foody pictures. We finished with Rice pudding and plum compote,  not jam, compote!!

  

Our room and us all dressed up ready for our evening meal.



The underground walkway from the Hotel to the Spa

The elephant which stands at the main entrance to the Spa.